Kelen: Interview with a Music Teacher about the Olympics

Du Xiajiao is a music teacher I met in Beichen Shopping Mall. She is a nice lady. Before I met her, there were several people did not want to receive our interviewing. When we met her and talked to her about our interviewing. She said she would like to do it. I was super-happy. You will see my happy face in my picture.

Kelen: What’s your name?

Teacher: Du Xiajiao.

Kelen: What do you do for work?

Teacher: Music teacher.

Kelen: What is the great changes in Beijing Olympics?

Teacher: The environment of Beijing.

Kelen: You must be proud of our country hold the 29th Olympic Games?

Teacher: Of course. Beijing is my great hometown.

Kelen: Which sports will you follow most in the Beijing Olympics?

Teacher: Water sports are my favourite and I always go swimming with my friends.

Kelen: Which friendlies do you like best?

Teacher: Jing Jing(Panda) but all of them are lovely.

Kelen: Me too! I like panda best! Thank you. Goodbye~

Special Post from WKCD (What Kids Can Do)

After 6 months of the Beijing Youth Voices (BJV) blogging project , Dr. Barbara Cervone, Executive Director of WKCD, joined Tricia Wang, BJV Program Manager and Gloria Xu, BJV teacher, in China to work with the 6 BJV students for 1 week at the Adobe Beijing headquarters. Within 48 hours, Linda, Steve, E-mail, Kelen, Siqi and Iris produced amazing narrated, photos slideshows. You can find their six slideshows here, as they talk about the confluence of the Olympics and their daily lives. Before checking out their individual slideshows, we suggest that you listen and watch this special 5 minute audio slideshow on their thoughts around the Olympics. After following their lives for 6 months on this blog, we think you will be able to gain a new perspective when you hear their thoughts around this important event in their lives.

Hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics is a point of huge pride for Chinese of all ages. It is China’s debut on the world stage and they pray it is impeccable. For many Westerners and other non-Chinese, the Beijing Olympics offers a different—and no less urgent— storyline: about the suppression of dissent, the importance of human rights, the impact of environmental pollution, and more.

The Beijing youth whose voices and photos we share here speak from the first perspective. They love their country. They are smart and compassionate. They worked terrifically hard to produce these audio slideshows, and they offer them with open hearts. As outsiders, we may wish these six Beijing teenagers had taken up some of the issues that have stirred discussion and protest elsewhere in the world. But these are their stories—from youth who have big dreams for their country as well as for themselves.

We would like to give a special thank you to Adobe Beijing and Adobe Youth Voices for making this project possible. In particular, the Adobe Beijing staff was absolutely invaluable in empowering the students to tell their stories!

Enjoy!

Barbara Cervone, Tricia Wang and Gloria Xu

E-mail – The Olympics is Coming! Clean Streets

The Olympics will be held in Beijing next mounth. I belive everyone is waiting for this Olympic Game  - it is all so exciting.  Now we are already in July!  You can see many changes in Beijing everywhere.  Everyone is taking great care of the environment around themselves.  No matter when and where they see rubbish on the road, they pick it up and put it into the dustbin.  You can see workers coating the stockade at the side of the road, fixing the street light, and  cleaning the ads on the wall.  You can also see many tourists taking picutures everywhere.  Beijing is getting more and more beautiful.  Here is a picture taken outside of the”Nest.”  We all belive it will be a really successful event. 

 When I asked a street cleaner, “do you like your job?” He answerd in a proud voice, “Yes ,I like it very much!  If I can do more for the Olympics, I’ll try my best!  My job is not clean the street, my job is to beautify the environment.”

Linda – The Concordant City: We Welcome You

We has just finished our exams. We are all feeling very relaxed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I on my way home I always find our road is very clean.You can flowers everywhere. It’s really a feast of the eyes.  Ahhh flowers and trees~   Soo wonderful!

 

 

 

 

 

The street is very clean!   Welcome you here!

E-mail – My Free Day: Sitting in a Real Ship with Blooming Flowers Around Me

I went to Beihai park and the Military museum several days ago when the flowers were starting to come out. They were really beautiful! I saw Jasminum nudiflorums, oriental cherries and many wild flowers.

Here is a picture of Jasminum nudiflorum. The trees in this picture were still yellow but if you looked at it carefully you can find the young leaves coming out. When you see them, you can feel that life is so great!

After the park trip I went to the Military Museum. I took many pictures in it. But the most favourate picture is the one of me sitting in a big ship.  Everything in the Military museum is free including the admission ticket. Except that if you want to get on the big ship you have to buy a ticket. I think the big ship was the greatest. It is a real ship, a real ship running in the ocean several years ago and here I am right now sitting in it. It all feels very exciting.  I asked my friend to help me take a photo, here it is!

By the way, can you see the flowers on the trees behind me? They smelled really good. You can smell it through the wind even though they are far away from you!

Linda – My Dear Class and an Interesting Story

My dear class is just like a big family. Our head teacher who acts as our father is not only kind, but also strictness. In our class, boys and girls are like brothers and sisters. I will tell you a funny story that happened one day.

One day one our Chinese teacher told us she would take an exam, because we had done a lot of work we were not pleased. Some students even got ready for sleeping. Tom couldn’t help saying “Teacher, do we must have it? Crazy!!!” With a proud expression, the teacher said nothing. Another student said “If you order us to do that, I will…..” intimidating. “So?” the teacher answered. At that time we all expected he could succeed so that we could not have the exam. Silence……..

“So? What will you do I wonder….” “En… I will do what you want us to do exactly ….” Haha The teacher smiled and we all made joke on him. Finally we did the test at the end of the day….as she wanted..

Well, you know our Chinese teacher is very young. We treat her as our elder sister and she treats us as younger friends. We often play some jokes on her. And she always know how to deal with us

Kelen – Kentucky “Friend” Chicken: Sipping Drinks and Licking Ice Cream with Xiao Xiao

There are a lot of places which I love to go in my life, but the most convenient place is KFC near my community.
I have a best friend named XiaoXiao. She is my neighbour and we always go to this KFC to have drinks. She drinks juice and I drink soda water. We like this flavor and we spend our free time sipping on soft drinks at KFC.

This picture below is of us drinking in the KFC.

I remember our last summer holiday where we would stay at KFC for a lot of relaxing time. I know it sounds weird that we spend soo much in a fast food restaurant. Can you guess what is the reason? The answer is that there is an air conditioner inside and we can order a cup of cold soft drinks after swimming. That makes us feel so cool.

There are a lot of KFCs in Beijing. The one near my community is my favorite. If it is in winter, Xiaoxiao and I will go there and order something hot, such as hot chocolate and hot milk, or hot juice. We will talk a lot like what brand of pen we like to use. When we sit down in this KFC, we calm down and are happy because KFC always plays happy music.

Kelen – My Thoughts About Friendship: New and Old

All of us have a lot of stories about our friends.   The stories could be funny also could be laden with grief.  We had to leave from our childhood for a long time but when we turn our head back we may realize that friends from that time were still young so that is why their names are gone.

I have many friends but they just like the ocean sprays that disappear with time into the sea.

When I swim in the time sea, I get that feeling of eating plums, sweet and sour

This picture to the left records a happy time with my new friends from the Bejing Youth Voices Project.  There are five girls and one of the hands is mine,  one of the hands is from Linda.  We saw many pictures like that so we also wanted to have a try at it.

The next pictures on the left is of Kelen’s and Siqi’s shadow.  Can you guess which one is Kelen? And who is the other girl?  (Kelen is the girl on the left, the other girl is Si QI).

Here is a picture of Xiao Xiao and I. We have all been friends for six years. I like this picture very much.  It’s very lovely.
The girl who is white just likes the snow is my best friend BoBo.  Even though we haven’t seen each other in a long time, she is a tree in my heart, never moving.
At the time of the picture, we were 15 years old.  BoBo,  do you still remember that day? I fell asleep in our sports meeting and rested on you.

Friends, friends, no matter where you go, you still are my friends  .Our friendship will be like the ships sailing in the timeless sea.

Steven – My Favorite Restaurant is an Italian one in Beijing!

As a gourmand, I have been to most of restaurants around our community, and Pasta House(意粉屋) is on the top of my list.

I find lots of restaurants are the same, but when I walk into the Pasta House, I have a totally different experiences.

In Pasta House, there are beautiful pictures and cartoons of specialty food on all of the walls. In addition, there are some comfortable chairs. I like the seats farthest from window. If I sit there, it is quiet and I feel relaxed.   Now, many people enjoy reading books or having a little meeting in the cafe. Maybe it’s a interesting hobby.

And I didn’t know anything about Italian food before. But when I went to Pasta House, I realized that I loved Italian food.  I always eat too much to walk.  I don’t know what Chinese people think about Italian foods. I just usually eat with my mother.  I feel really good when I eat in the restaurant. I sometimes come here with my friends, or sometimes myself.
In conclusion, I love this restaurant. （Here is a picture of my favorite food, I found from internet. I forgot to take my camera that time. ((

Now there are a lot of western restaurants in Beijing.  Such as Mexican food, German food, French restautants, Korean restaurants.   Pizza and fast foods is the most popular in Beijing. You can see so many buffet dinner restaurants and cafes in Beijing.  But I like Italian ones because I like how cheese tastes.

Kelan – Watch My Guitar Playing Talents!

Click here to watch the video of me and my guitar! The camera will flip right-side up after 10 seconds.